Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, today release The 1974 Live Recordings celebrating the 50th anniversary of Bob Dylan’s return to touring that year. Featuring all professionally recorded shows from the artist’s 1974 performances backed by The Band, the collection is now available as a deluxe box set across 27 CDs. The 1974 Live Recordings offers fans 417 previously-unreleased Bob Dylan live tracks – including 133 recordings newly mixed from 16-track tape, and every single surviving soundboard recording – along with new liner notes by journalist and critic Elizabeth Nelson.
Early praise for the collection has arrived from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Associated Press, UNCUT, and MOJO who in their four-star review said the music is “...so mighty it reorients a Dylan era…,” and Uproxx’s Steven Hyden who wrote, “‘The 1974 Live Recordings’ puts you inside Bob Dylan and The Band’s historic tour…The electric sets from the first several weeks represent some of the finest music Dylan and The Band ever made together.”
In conjunction with The 1974 Live Recordings, Third Man Records has in conjunction released The 1974 Live Recordings - The Missing Songs From Before the Flood, a 3-LP / 1 x 7-inch set culled from the same recordings, featuring hand-selected versions of every song Bob Dylan recorded that was not included on the original 1974 live album. Pressed exclusively on colored vinyl, the set sold out in pre-orders upon being announced through The Vault, Third Man's direct-to-customer mail-order service.
In celebration of the release and the 50th anniversary of Dylan’s return to touring, Legacy Recordings and Third Man Records are partnering on a listening panel with The Bob Dylan Center. The event will take place during AmericanaFest on Friday, September 20 (5:30pm) at Third Man Records’ Blue Room in Nashville. Panelists include Ben Blackwell of Third Man Records, Elizabeth Nelson the journalist and musician who wrote the liner notes for the set, and Steven Jenkins from The Bob Dylan Center, with a special performance by Minnesota natives The Cactus Blossoms.
For more information on Bob Dylan: The 1974 Live Recordings visit here.
